Tanami Desert not Arunta

You say "Most of the Tanami Desert is Aboriginal land, belonging to the Arunta people".

The Arrernte (=Arunta) language group does not get into the Tanami Desert. The majority of the Tanami is Warlpiri country with several other language groups occupying the periphery.

The Rufous Hare-wallaby (Mala) no longer exists in the wild in the NT. This species was wiped out by wildfire which probably spread from a roadside camp fire with the remnants being picked off by a fox.

Jeff Cole

Comments for Tanami Desert not Arunta

Thanks for writing.
How embarrassing... It's been fixed.
(I swear, it's not like I don't know Arrernte live in the Alice Springs area and the MacDonnell Ranges. I have no idea how their name ended up on the Tanami page... Typo isn't the right word for it, but I certainly didn't mean to write that!)

Thanks again for alerting me to it. I appreciate it.

Regarding the mala, the page actually refers to the nineties, not the present, and it also mentions the role the foxes had. However, I shall reword it and make clearer that the mala is indeed gone.

Malaby: Nick

Jeff Cole, are you meaning to say that the Tanami Desert population is now gone? I am just doing a bit of a project on these guys.